Comic-Con: The convention that swallowed San Diego

Full Coverage:Comic-Con 2013 in San DiegoPhotos: Comic-Con 2013 in San DiegoSAN DIEGO - Comic-Con International has exploded in size and popularity in recent years, bringing in more than $175 million in five days for San Diego in 2012.The 130,000 fans estimated to have attended events in and around the San Diego Convention Center in 2013 are a far cry from the 300 attendees who met the basement of the US Grant Hotel in downtown San Diego more than 40 years ago."When I first started with this organization years and years ago, I couldn't give passes away," said David Glanzer, director of Comic-Con International. "People would ask what comedians would be there."No one's confused about that any more."Comic-Con is one of our treasures here in San Diego," said San Diego Tourism Authority spokesman Darren Pudgil. "It was born here, it was raised here and we would like it to grow old here. It's a great source of pride to the people of San Diego."But it's also a coveted treasure that other cities, including Los Angeles, envy."L.A. would be honored to be a future show host," said Susan Lomax, spokeswoman for the Los Angeles Tourism & Convention Board. "Characters and action-heroes are a part of L.A.'s DNA as the city that brings them to life on the silver screen."Comic-Con attendees brought in $2.5 million tax revenue in 2012, spent another $77 million and brought in an estimated $175.4 million to the city."It is, without question, the most popular convention we have. It's the Super Bowl of popular culture," Pudgil said. "Even for people without tickets, downtown San Diego provides the best people-watching this side of Krypton. There's more superheroes and cyborgs than you could ever imagine."But Comic-Con can be a difficult fit in the San Diego Convention Center, as anyone who's been on the Comic-Con floor on a Saturday afternoon can attest."We've actually had to limit our growth," Glanzer said. "We utilize every inch of the convention center."The convention uses about 460,000 square feet for exhibition space, and the center's eighth exhibit hall is turned into a 6,500-seat theater. City officials have even stepped in and encouraged neighboring hotels and parks to get involved to help host Comic-Con events to alleviate the crowds at the convention."The city's been very good about creating a Comic-Con campus, if you will," Glanzer said.Still, the convention has been forced to cap its attendance at 130,000 and cap the number of exhibitors.City officials hope to expand the convention center by another third within the next five years, but the proposal is currently in the hands of the state's Coastal Commission -- the San Diego Convention Center is built right up against San Diego Bay -- potentially opening the door for other suitors."While Comic-Con has great heritage in San Diego, L.A. offers great opportunities for the show's future," Lomax said. "More exhibit space, two world-class arenas/theatres in The STAPLES Center and Nokia Theatre in walking distance of the Convention Center, more hotel options -- that are more affordable -- for fans, and locations for fans to be around the creative process all add up to a win-win option."The San Diego Convention Center currently has a total space of about a million square feet -- putting it ahead of the Los Angeles Convention Center, behind the Anaheim Convention Center and the Sands Expo and Convention Center in Las Vegas and the Las Vegas Convention Center itself."It could conceivably move," Glanzer said, "but the reality is: Do we want to move and do our fans want to move?"For some, the answer is decidedly: No."To me, part of the allure of (Comic-Con) is San Diego," said Joe Quesada, the Chief Creative Officer of Marvel Entertainment. "There's something about the combination of this particular convention, the coming together of the entire industry and the town that makes it something special."Although Quesada, who's been attending the show for two decades now, said he sometimes misses the smaller, more intimate show Comic-Con once was, he also loves what it's grown into."It's pretty amazing how the city has grown around it and accommodated it in many ways," he said. "It's part and parcel of it -- you can't have one without the other."Geoff Johns, Chief Creative Officer of DC Entertainment, agrees."I've come to the San Diego Comic-Con for as long as I remember being in comics and even as a fan," he said. "I love it down here. It's a great city to be in."But experts say it really won't be an issue for at least three more years. In 2012, the convention signed a contract to keep Comic-Con International in San Diego through 2016.Follow Los Angeles News Group coverage of Comic-Con International at dailynews.com/comic-con and on Twitter @GeekOutLANG